"It shouldn't be like this!" The pacing gets faster. "It shouldn't be so unfair. People like them shouldn't be able to hoard everything for themselves, while their workers half-starve, and while they hurt anyone that doesn't work themselves to death or give everything over to them. Everyone should be able to feed their families and keep a roof over their heads without practically killing themselves. No!"
He stops pacing and starts gesturing wildly.
"No, they should get to do more than that! People should get to enjoy themselves. They should be so comfortable they have time to better themselves. People should have leisure time, the educational system shouldn't be absolute garbage, and what is with this town having no access to the arts?!"
Insanity!
"You know what it is?! It's malarkey! You heard me, malarkey!"
His expression is pained.
"I have been stuck on that stupid vineyard, I gave up everything I ever wanted to do, because I knew it was the only way our workers could have anything close to a decent life, but I should have been able to leave. They should have been okay enough for me to leave."
He clenches up his fists.
"I wanted to explore. I wanted to go to school. I wanted find some place somewhere where there was something new to discover. Instead, I'm stuck in this garbage dump of town because of Cygne and Goluboy."
He waves his hands wildly again.
"When I hate raisins! I hate them so much! And I hate vineyard flies! and I hate being sticky all the freakin' time! There's a reason I left the vineyard and joined Starflee - oh my God, something altered our memories."
He holds a hand to his head as it all comes rushing in. Leaving the vineyard - leaving a world where everyone was taken care of, where the vineyard's workers worked there not to make a living but because they deeply enjoyed horticulture and had free homes and free food to go back to, where nobody wanted for anything, where people did better themselves, where they did enjoy the arts, where they could get an education, where humanity realized that nobody should get to practically enslave others with a threat of homelessness and starvation.
Where they moved on from the darkness of the past - and not just the darkness of the nuclear wars and the age of gene-altered warlords and the post-atomic Horror - but of the far past. No more capitalism, no more bigotry between humans, no more social ills like starvation and war and homelessness.
Where he had been free to leave and travel across the stars, exploring and finding things far, far more alien and captivating than anything on Earth.
He points at Loki.
"You just mentioned Asgard. You remember everything, too, don't you."
no subject
He stops pacing and starts gesturing wildly.
"No, they should get to do more than that! People should get to enjoy themselves. They should be so comfortable they have time to better themselves. People should have leisure time, the educational system shouldn't be absolute garbage, and what is with this town having no access to the arts?!"
Insanity!
"You know what it is?! It's malarkey! You heard me, malarkey!"
His expression is pained.
"I have been stuck on that stupid vineyard, I gave up everything I ever wanted to do, because I knew it was the only way our workers could have anything close to a decent life, but I should have been able to leave. They should have been okay enough for me to leave."
He clenches up his fists.
"I wanted to explore. I wanted to go to school. I wanted find some place somewhere where there was something new to discover. Instead, I'm stuck in this garbage dump of town because of Cygne and Goluboy."
He waves his hands wildly again.
"When I hate raisins! I hate them so much! And I hate vineyard flies! and I hate being sticky all the freakin' time! There's a reason I left the vineyard and joined Starflee - oh my God, something altered our memories."
He holds a hand to his head as it all comes rushing in. Leaving the vineyard - leaving a world where everyone was taken care of, where the vineyard's workers worked there not to make a living but because they deeply enjoyed horticulture and had free homes and free food to go back to, where nobody wanted for anything, where people did better themselves, where they did enjoy the arts, where they could get an education, where humanity realized that nobody should get to practically enslave others with a threat of homelessness and starvation.
Where they moved on from the darkness of the past - and not just the darkness of the nuclear wars and the age of gene-altered warlords and the post-atomic Horror - but of the far past. No more capitalism, no more bigotry between humans, no more social ills like starvation and war and homelessness.
Where he had been free to leave and travel across the stars, exploring and finding things far, far more alien and captivating than anything on Earth.
He points at Loki.
"You just mentioned Asgard. You remember everything, too, don't you."